Cover Image: Tough Guy

Tough Guy

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Member Reviews

t has been a while since I read a hockey romance and this one did not disappoint. Hockey playing hero Ryan suffers from anxiety and it was handled so well by the author. His love interest is Fabian and Fabian seems to present as gender non-conforming. All in all the story was sweet and sexy and was a great reintroduction to hockey romance for me.

Grade: B

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Let me take a minute to bask in the complete warm fuzzies that this book has given me...

AHHHHHHHHH! So warm! So fuzzy!

I loved this book! It's super cute and cuddly and sweet. Plus, I've never seen a better and more realistic depiction of anxiety in a book.

Meet our "tough guy," Ryan. He is a hockey enforcer (fighter) recently traded to the NHL team in Toronto. Since playing hockey, he has been traded almost every year. He's intimidating to other hockey players and believes that he's only kept his status as an NHL player because he knows how to fight. But he's super lonely and anxious.

"Ryan didn't expect to form any particular strong bonds to any of his teammates. Something about being naturally awkward, shy, clinically anxious, terrified of flying, and, oh yes, gay, didn't exactly make him a friend magnet in the ol' locker room. But he would try."

Then we meet Fabian, a professional musician with several albums to his name, who grew up in the shadow of hockey. His dad coached, his sister plays professionally, and his family would host teenage hockey players during hockey season. Fabian was a gay music nerd in the middle of all of this, ignored by his parents, and bullied by the hockey players his family housed. The only hockey player that he liked (and had a crush on) was Ryan.

Fabian is working part-time at a local drug store when Ryan walks in to pick up his prescription renewal for his anxiety meds. The two reconnect and begin one of the sweetest, supportive, and loving romances.

Ryan is a teddy bear cinnamon roll sweetheart and I want to hug him so much. My heart broke for him so many times throughout this book - I also have anxiety and felt like I was listening to my own thoughts several times throughout this book (Ryan rehearsing his food order, apologizing for things he doesn't need to, trying to find ways to take up the least amount of space and be the least amount of hassle, feeling uncomfortable and like you don't fit in social gatherings). Thankfully, Fabian was there to lift Ryan (and me) up and out of the dark thoughts weighing Ryan down with reassurance, understanding, patience, HUMOR, and love.

This is the first book I've read by Rachel Reid and I've already picked up and started to read the first book in this series. Her writing is deliciously funny and equally heartbreaking and poignant, and I can't wait to read more of her work. She's on a fast track to becoming a One-Click author for me.

ARC received by publisher via NetGalley.

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I’m a start from book 1 in a series person, so this is what happened. This is book 3, so I haven’t read book 1 or 2 so I don’t know if this is the authors writing style or if this story was supper hard to get into. Never kept my attention at all, took me days to read this. I did t feel any connection between the main characters, the inner dialogue was making me board. To much woe is me!

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Tough Guy is definitely my fave of the series (so far). Loved the story, the characters and cannot wait for the 4th book in the series!

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DNF. Couldn't get into it for some reason which is a bummer since I loved the other books in the series.

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I really liked this a lot. I loved Ryan and Fabian so much. I love a story where two friends from the past reunite, especially like this. The story moved really well, not too fast, and I felt there was a good amount of angst. The angst never goes over the top, thankfully. It's just a good story, with vulnerable characters that are brave enough to show that vulnerability. And the ending was sort of perfect and where I'd hoped it would go. Good stuff...

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Tough Guy is part of the Game Changers series and it can be read as a standalone. I would highly recommend reading the two books prior as it gives context to the world this book takes place in.

Tough Guy was a different departure from the others in the series. I liked both Ryan and Fabian. They had some real chemistry although it was rather understated. I didn't get a raw intensity from them. Fabian was very confident in his life and what he does, where Ryan is going through an inner struggle with his. He doesn't like what he's been hired to do, but feels grateful for the position so many others would covet.

Overall, a nice story with likeable characters. I have really enjoyed this series and look forward to many more to come.

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This was just okay for me. It didn’t give me all the feels, and it was an easy read. I didn’t finish it very quickly though because I lost interest a few times. That doesn’t mean Ryan and Fabian weren’t likable characters or that their story wasn’t good.

There just wasn’t a lot of conflict or suspense, so Ryan’s decision about his career in the end didn’t feel like a big deal. I didn’t feel like their relationship was ever in real danger.

What I really liked was how much Fabian cared about Ryan’s health, and how Fabian made Ryan feel more comfortable about himself and more relaxed. Fabian was Ryan’s complete opposite, in and out of bed, kinky and endearing, and inspired Ryan to let go and express and enjoy himself.

Ryan’s anxiety was a big part of the story. It prevented him from enjoying life at times, but meeting Fabian changed him, made him want to live a better life, do and be better for himself.

Although the author explained how anxiety affects people, the writing itself didn’t make me feel it. In my personal experience, anxiety can be so debilitating. I felt this book kinda glossed over it, because it wasn’t emoted as well as it could have been.

I didn’t like this book as much as the second book, Heated Rivalry, and Ilya and Shane making an appearance in this one just reminded me how much better their book was. This needed to stand on its own merit, but for me, it didn’t quite hit the mark.

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I enjoyed this one. Ryan was really sweet and I felt bad that his anxiety affected him so much in both his personal and professional life. Fabian was perfect for him. He was open about sex and knew how to help Ryan with his anxiety and performance issues.

I liked that both of the MC’s weren’t hockey players and That hockey was kept to a minimum in this book. It was a nice change.

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Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

They have nothing in common—so why does Ryan feel most like himself whenever he’s with Fabian?

Pro hockey star Ryan Price may be an enforcer, but off the ice he struggles with anxiety. Recently traded to the Toronto Guardians, he’s determined to make a fresh start in the city’s dynamic LGBTQ Village. The last thing he expects to stumble upon in his new neighborhood is a blast from his past in the fabulous form of Fabian Salah.

Aspiring musician Fabian loathes hockey. But that doesn’t stop him from being attracted to a certain burly, ginger-bearded defenseman. He hasn’t forgotten the kiss they almost shared back in high school, and it’s clear the chemistry between them has only intensified.

Fabian is more than happy to be Ryan’s guide to the gay scene in Toronto. Between dance clubs and art exhibits—and the most amazing sex—Ryan’s starting to feel something he hasn’t experienced in a long time: joy. But playing the role of the heavy on the ice has taken its toll on his body and mind, and a future with Fabian may mean hanging up his skates for good.

I discovered Rachel Reid through this blog's recommendations for M/M Hockey Recommendations.  All it took was one story to know I had a new author for my auto buy list.  Luckily for me , the author also loves to write M/M hockey romances so I'm absolutely overjoyed twice over.

Game Changers is one of her fabulous series that I just impatiently wait for that next story to fall.  Tough Guy is the third installment and , again, just another outstanding tale of romance intertwined with the game of ice hockey and its players.  It's a game I'm fanatic about and deeply appreciate those authors that share my love as well as have the ability to not only understand the complexities of the game but of the players and their careers.  It is a far cry from football, much closer in passion and spirit to baseball in what it takes sometimes to continue on because of the love of the sport.

In Tough Guy (Game Changers #3) by Rachel Reid, the author also writes about what happens when that passion begins to fade, what's next.    Something that can cut deep  emotionally and mentally.  Reid's characterizations have been a major draw of her stories.  They are layered portraits of real people, flawed, human, pained, and lovely.  So easy  to connect with, as you do here with both hockey star Ryan Price and musician Fabian Salah.

They have a complex back history, together and apart but when they mesh and reconnect, they are so endearing, so open, so, well perfect for each other, that the story just flew by as I was so engaged by their relationship and their path towards love.

By the end (as I feel with all the stories in this series) I was loathe to leave the couple behind.  I had fallen for them and wanted to linger a bit longer.

Oh well, now to wait for the next story in the series.  I hope Rachel Reid won't make me wait too long.

I highly recommend this story and the entire series.  And this author.  What a splendid time you will have getting acquainted!

Cover art by Carina Press is just ok but doesn't really relate to the storyline or character.  Meh.

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Thank you to #Netgalley for the early review copy

After reading the other two in the series, I was delighted to see Tough Guy was available for ARC. Immediately requested it and here we are.

Tough Guy follows in the same vein as the other two but is very different at the same time. To me, this one resonated with more on a personal level. The characters are extremely vulnerable with each other and have such humanistic traits that you know they are fully fleshed-out flawed characters and that's why I rate it so highly.

We do also get a few cameos from previous characters in the other books, so yay!

If you have read the previous titles, this is a MUST for to complete the circle and I hope to see much more from this author.

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Dear lord, I love hockey romances. Tough Guy, Rachel Reid's third book in the Game Changers series, is fantastic.

A second chance romance, Ryan and Fabio reunite after 14 years ago, back when Fabio's family housed Ryan for a while.

Ryan's a quietly out gay hockey player, but he definitely hides that he is attracted to femme men, as the androgynous look is what turns him on.
",,he was in awe of their confidence, of their bravery to openly be themselves and dare anyone to say anything about it." I freakin love this!

Ryan's a multi-layered character, as he may be a big, bad hockey enforcer but he's terrified of flying. He struggles to get along with his teammates wherever he goes, as he has shockingly low self-esteem. He suffers from anxiety, including social anxiety and anxiety about sex. His attitude towards sex is well explored and made my heart hurt. The poor man feels unworthy of sex, which is heart-breaking. It's realistic and well written. I love this man and just want to wrap him up in a big hug.

And dear sweet Fabio. He's a femme musician who wears makeup. Basically, he's exactly the type of man Ryan's attracted to. Following along as they reuinite and develop their relationship, is a marvelous read. But best of all, I want to cry that Fabio isn't afraid of Ryan. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

I love Rachel Reid's writing style. The writing is great, with compelling characters, and a riveting storyline. The anxiety aspect is extremely well written, with both care and compassion.

Tough Guy is a must read for any fan of hockey romances. This Rachel Reid book will not disappoint.

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"Tough Guy" is the third book in a series that includes one of my favorite hockey books ever. But Heated Rivalry is a tough act to follow...

We first saw Ryan as Ilya's short-term teammate. He didn't have a lot of page time in that book but it was clear that he had a lot to say. So, this is his story.

On the ice he's the tough guy that no one wants to go against. He plays defence but in reality he's an enforcer. That means that he's getting payed to fight the opponents that try to rough up the really valuable players of whichever team he plays for. His position doesn't excite him and he lost his enjoyment of the game somewhere along the way. Now, he just plays out of habit and because he thinks that's his only way to make a living.

A chance encounter with Fabian becomes the reason for him to re-evaluate his life.

Fabian is an aspiring musician. He gives everything he has into getting the musical career he wants. He works part time to help his dream but he spends countless hours writing music and playing his songs. He recognizes Ryan immediately and the forgotten feelings rush forward once again for both of them.

They start hanging out but Fabian's attitude toward hockey was very black and white. He doesn't like the sport or the players and he's not shy about letting everyone around him know that.

As they grow closer again Ryan is struggling to keep his job separate from Fabian because he knows his opinion. I don't know how they thought that was going to work. Ryan's job was his way of life. I don't know how they thought it would be possible to keep their relationship separate from hockey. And I also think it was unfair of Fabian to have this kind of attitude about Ryan's job.

One thing that bothered me is how unrealistic Ryan's daily routine was. I don't think he went to practice even once. He had many mornings free where he could just lie in bed until whatever time he wanted and he could stay out late without worring about morning practice. The story was supposed to take place during the season and, while they did have away games and left for long road trips, when they were at their home base Ryan's daily routine didn't seem possible for a pro athlete during the season.

For me, the highlight of the book was, of course, Ilya and Shane's appearance! I just love reading about these two characters! And, once again, they didn't disappoint. Ilya was still the laid back guy that got on Shane's nerves and Shane was still the slightly uptight guy that melts when Ilya looks at him. I couldn't resist doing a re-read of their story after finishing this book. Now I'm wondering if there's a sequel coming about them! Please, let there be a part two!!




An ARC of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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I want more books in this series! ❤

Have you ever wanted to read a book really badly but didn't read it because you didn't want it to be over? Well, that was me with Tough Guy. I really, really wanted to read this, and have had a copy since mid-December 2019, but kept putting off reading it because I knew it would be an emotional read but also because I knew I wouldn't want it to end. According to Rachel Reid's website, she is planning more books in this series and I am so happy to learn that.

This story was a bit different from the first two in this series but I loved it just as much. NHL player, Ryan, doesn't like what he's become. He hates fighting and hates that he is expected to fight on the ice, that fighting is what he's been hired for. Fabian couldn't be more opposite from Ryan. He's a musician and loves to wear makeup and he never imagined that he would be Ryan's type.

This book wasn't as hot and heavy with the sexy time as the others and that was integral to the story. Ryan has a lot of nervous issues and takes medication. Medication that affects a lot of things, including his ability to have an orgasm, which in turn can end up making him more anxious.

When Ryan runs into Fabian near his new home in Toronto, he once again feels the connection to him that he felt back when they were teenagers. Fabian is exactly the kind of man Ryan is attracted to, much to Fabian's surprise.

I loved the slow-burn of Ryan and Fabian exploring their attraction to each other. I also loved how caring Fabian was and how understanding of Ryan's various issues. Everything about this book just kept me glued to my e-reader once I started it.

I wish I had the right words to say how much I loved this book and the whole series. If you like MM hockey romance you really should give Rachel Reid's books a chance.

A review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
Ryan Price is a gentle giant. He is 6.7ft and a professional hockey player who sees himself as a guy whose job it is to beat up other guys on the ice. This doesn’t not make him happy. Off the ice he is timid, has low self-esteem, and suffers from crippling social anxiety. Fabian, on the other hand, is out and proud, self-assured, and living the life he wants to live.

Tough Guy is a really lovely romance. It isn’t a perfect or easy and whenever a bump appeared in the road, I was just cheering Fabian and Ryan on, hoping they could work around their problems and be happy together. I love that Ryan isn’t perfect and it is inspiring to see him face his fears. For me, the biggest lesson I got from Tough Guy was that just because you’ve been given what most people think is a great opportunity, doesn’t mean it is the right opportunity for you.

Excellent story and a solid four stars from me.


Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is the third book in the series, and is a great addition to the hot hockey player MM romance genre.

Ryan is an enforcer, and a massive figure to be fought whichever team he plays for... but he is pretty fed up with constantly moving, with having to drop his gloves and hurt players all the time. He also has a bad reputation for not getting close to his teammates. His Toronto coach has said this needs to improve, so he is even more stressed than usual. Even though he is on medication due to anxiety and getting counselling, he still hates flying, which is not good for an NHL hockey player. Life is not great really at all.

A chance encounter in a drug store with his first ever crush, Fabian, gives us an absolutely gorgeous story. Fabian is as flamboyant as Ryan is big and burly; Fabian is a fine-boned musician who is about to make it big with his unique solo music style, whereas Ryan is thinking of quitting his career. But somehow together they smooth out the edges, give confidence, and most of all, find love.

Along the way we get to enjoy Ryan actually making a friend on his team, and having the interest of his team as he provides them with baked goods. Fabian's friends, who enjoy supporting him and indulge in bargain brunche,s are also important in supporting these two men as they come to terms with how their futures will work.

I loved this story, the honesty of Ryan and the problems that he had, especially with his stress and anxiety.


Erica – ☆☆☆☆
Spoiler-Free Review

Tough Guy is the third installment in the Game Changers series, and can easily be read as a standalone with little to no confusion, featuring a cameo by past narrators.

Right off the bat, I need to confess that Ryan's anxiety resonated with me deeply, which made me root for him, even if he was standoffish with his teammates and pretty brutal on the ice as an enforcer, even if it went against his natural teddy bear disposition. Ryan was a ticking time-bomb of stress, with the extra pressure of his coach riding his butt on his behavior.

In walks Fabian back into Ryan's life, just as that last thread is about to snap, in a second-chance romantic entanglement with Ryan's first crush, who just so happens to loathe hockey.

The indie musician versus the hockey enforcer, opposites attract yet also seem to balance each other emotionally, creating a quick, heartwarming novel that offered some much-needed escapism this afternoon. Another layer was the friendships shared with Fabian and Ryan, lending the warm and fuzzies.

Why not 5 stars?

The pacing slowed in places, where I felt my mind wandering, struggling to skip a few passages of redundant inner monologues. While I loved the characters, understood how they fit well with one another, I just didn't feel a push-pull spark of attraction that held my attention. There was also a lack of 'hockey' in this hockey romance.

To be honest, of the three novels in this series, this wasn't my favorite. I devoured the first two, where I just couldn't get enough. However, I do believe it was a worthy addition to the series and look forward to more in the future.

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Ryan Price is the dictionary definition of a gentle giant. As one of the NHL’s biggest, burliest, most well-known enforcers, he certainly has a reputation. But that reputation isn’t at all the real person. The real Ryan Price is shy, socially awkward, clinically anxious, and hates fighting. Ryan doesn’t want to be an enforcer. He wants to be a hockey player. But, even the extra training in the off-season, and showing up in Toronto in the best shape of his career in the hopes of actually getting to be a defenseman, instead of a glorified boxer, didn’t make a difference. This passage from a conversation with his new coach in the prologue was heartbreaking:

“Well, you know why you’re here. I don’t have to tell you what kind of player you are, and what we expect from you. You get what I’m saying I’m sure.” He stopped smiling and fixed a very pointed look at Ryan.

Ryan got what he was saying all right. It was the same thing that every coach he’d had since he was seventeen had told him: we need you to beat the shit out of opponents who threaten our real players.
Tough Guy is a tough read at times because of the heartache you feel for Ryan. Reid does an excellent job of setting the tone and immediately getting the reader into his head. Nine teams in a little more than ten years and being forced to be a thug on the ice has taken every last ounce of joy out of a game Ryan used to love. He feels stuck, unhappy, scared, and unstable. After a very public breakdown while with his last team, he did get himself into therapy, and started taking medication, but things still aren’t great. He also has a good support system in his family—mainly his sister, who is awesome—and a routine to get him through flights without having a massive panic attack, but what he really, desperately needs is a change.

Fabian Salah is an amazing, up-and-coming musician, who is right on the brink of breaking out of Toronto’s local music scene. He’s out and proud, and unabashedly himself. Fabian hasn’t always been so comfortable in his own skin, however. As a teenager, his family didn’t understand or support him. His father was a hockey coach, and every year his family hosted a junior hockey player, which in Fabian’s mind was his parents’ way of bringing in the son they always wanted. As a result, Fabian HATES hockey, and hockey players. There was that one, though… Ryan Price was the only hockey player who never made Fabian feel uncomfortable. Ryan was different. And, at seventeen they had had a moment. A moment where Fabian had thought Ryan was going to kiss him. But that had been thirteen years ago. So long ago that they both wondered if it had even actually happened. So, imagine Fabian’s surprise when Ryan Price walks into the drugstore he works part-time at in Toronto’s LGBTQ Village.

There were so many things that made me love this book. I adored Ryan. I pretty much instantly fell in love with him when he pulled out a worn copy of Anne of Green Gables on the plane as his comfort item. And, I loved Fabian and Ryan’s history so much, and that neither one had forgotten that connection from when they were teens. Also, Fabian has some fantastic friends who were a big part of the story. I especially loved his friendship with Vanessa. And, Ryan’s teammate Wyatt was so kickass and was literally my favorite. He had so many great moments and was one of the few people who was there for Ryan. There were also a couple of great cameos by Ilya Rozanov, who was one of the MCs in the second book in the series.

Fun fact: I actually haven’t read the first two books in this series—but, boy do I want to now! No need to worry though, Tough Guy can be read as a standalone. Just be prepared to also want to snap up the other books if you haven’t read them. I enjoyed Reid’s storytelling style, and she definitely knows her hockey. If you love hockey romance, or are just looking for a good, solid read, absolutely put this on your list. In the meantime, I’ll just be over here digging in to Ilya and Shane’s story.

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Ryan and Fabian

Ryan feels a bit awkward. He has very low self-esteem and starting something with Fabian is out of the question. After thirteen years they meet each other by accident and Fabian is interested in Ryan. Only Ryan can’t give him more. He has issues.

“We are not a good match.”
“Not at all. Want to make out?”
“Yeah. Bedroom?”
“Yes please.”

A wonderful story with lovable characters. Ryan was quite problematic and tried so hard to achieve right and open up. Fabian was an excellently personality and he was a violinist and singer image that!
With a rough and hard life as an NFL player, Ryan has a very risky life.
Fabian can’t handle the hard sides of Ryan’s sports life.

I loved this well developed story! It was good balanced, had well developed characters, and great environments. Engagingly written story!

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Tough Guy is book three in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, set in the world of professional hockey. While I wasn’t as utterly caught up in the romance here as I was in the previous book (Heated Rivalry – which made my Best of 2019 list), I nonetheless enjoyed the novel, and appreciated the way the author flips the stereotype of the confident, ripped jock so often found in sports romances (both m/f and m/m) and creates instead an endearing, gentle-giant-type character with severe self-esteem issues who struggles to reconcile the person he truly is with the one he’s expected to be on the ice.

At six-feet-seven inches, with a build like a bulldozer, Ryan Price knows how to intimidate. On the ice, he’s an enforcer, someone other players actually aspire to fight with – especially rookies, for whom “paying the Price” is something of a rite of passage. But it’s an image and a job that Ryan wrestles with, and which has been weighing down on him more and more as the years have passed, because that’s not who he is at all. When the story begins, Ryan has just been traded – yet again – this time to the Toronto Guardians, and is being urged – ordered, really – by his coach to be more of a team player both on and off the ice, and unsubtly quizzed about his mental health. Anxiety, self-esteem issues and finding social situations hard to deal with mean Ryan has always found it difficult to connect personally and professionally, and a well-publicised “freak out” the previous season (a panic attack) has made him even more self-conscious. This is the ninth team Ryan has played for in almost as many years; he’s never played anywhere long enough to put down roots or make any real friends, but this time he’s determined to change that, and finds himself an apartment in the vibrant, LGBTQ part of town. Ryan is openly – albeit quietly – gay but that’s never been an issue, partly, he suspects, because he’s moved too often for anyone to really notice or care, and with a few other players – notably Scott Hunter (Game Changer) – coming out recently, it hasn’t seemed necessary to hide it. Sex hasn’t often been a positive experience for him; he hasn’t had many partners, and those he has had haven’t really been interested in him as a person, or been able to see past his size or their own preconceptions of what he should like and want. He’s lonely, the medication he’s on is screwing up his libido and… it sucks.

When Ryan enters a local pharmacy in order to get a prescription filled, he’s surprised to see Fabian Salah working there. When Ryan was seventeen, he’d been billeted with the Salahs, a Lebanese family who lived and breathed hockey and whose daughter was a rising hockey star, but whose son, a hugely talented musician, seemed hardly to merit their notice. Even then, Ryan thought Fabian was beautiful and had a mad crush on him – which he suppressed, having quickly learned that Fabian despised everything to do with hockey. Over the year Ryan lived with Salahs, Fabian’s attitude changed and they became friends, but they haven’t seen each other since Ryan made the NHL.

Fabian is Ryan’s complete opposite in just about every way. Femme, confident and extrovert, he’s amazingly talented, completely adorable and has zero fucks to give about what others think or say about him. Plus he has the most fabulous group of friends I’ve read about in quite some time. Fabian had quite the crush on Ryan back in the day (but thought he was straight,) and seeing him again brings back a lot of that old fascination and attraction. Fabian isn’t pushy, but he does need to nudge Ryan out of his comfort zone a little to start with, and before long, they’re seeing each other regularly and fast moving toward couple-dom, helped considerably by Fabian’s ability to understand Ryan’s fears and anxieties and treat them as part of him and not something to be ashamed of or weird.

Tough Guy is a very different book to its predecessor, and anyone coming to it expecting more of the same may need to adjust those expectations. It’s what I’d call a ‘quiet’ book in general; the romance evolves naturally and realistically, and the drama is mostly supplied by Ryan’s growing conviction that he’s not happy in his chosen career and his struggles to deal with his self-esteem issues and see himself as someone worthy of someone as vibrant and sexy as Fabian. Ms. Reid handles Ryan’s anxiety issues very sensitively and never over – or under – plays them, and I appreciated her decision to write a main character who is experiencing sexual difficulties and isn’t always raring to go at the drop of a hat, something not often explored in romance novels.

I loved Fabian’s confidence and easy charm, although I was less than impressed with his actions towards the end, which actually felt like a deliberately contrived way of injecting some last minute tension into the story. Fortunately, things are resolved quickly, but that short section felt like an insert rather than an organically evolved part of the story, and I had to knock the final grade down a bit as a result.

Following a book as good – and well-loved – as Heated Rivalry was always going to be tricky, but the author’s decision to do something completely different was a good one. Tough Guy is a sweet, sensual and charming romance, and if you like opposites attract, gentle ginger giants and/or second-chance romances, then I’d urge you to give it a try.

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This took me FOREVER to get into. I just wasn’t as compelled as I had been with books 1 and 2. I’m not sure exactly why – but I didn’t gel with the couple as much as I had with the others. The chemistry was just off for me I guess.

I do enjoy a good hockey player book and Rachel Reid is a great author – so if you enjoyed books 1 and 2 I’d take a look at this – but it wasn’t my favorite.

3 of 5 stars

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A while back everyone was raving about Heated Rivalry, book 2 in this series. I finally bought it and I was so glad I did. So when this one came up to be reviewed I was all over it.

Same author. Same theme (hockey). TOTALLY different stories. I loved it.

We met Ryan very briefly in book 2. Enough to know that he gets traded every year and he hates flying. Those things haven't changed and this time his new team is in Toronto.

On the ice, Ryan is "the enforcer". His job is technically to defend the other players, but really it is to fight someone on the other team. And he hates it. In reality, he is this anxiety ridden teddy bear who thinks he isn't worthy of anything. Ugh, he broke my heart.

Many times when there is a character like this who is self deprecating, you kind of want to slap them. How can they not see that they are hot, or talented, or loved or a great person? But not Ryan. I felt his despair and how little he thought of himself. I just wanted to cuddle him and pet him. He broke my heart. He didn't even hide that he was gay. It's just that no one seemed to care.

And Fabian, musician who hates hockey- for good reason. I wanted to not like him. But it was impossible. He was so likable! Unapologetically fem without being over the top or throwing it in your face. He was just comfortable with who he was and didn't care if you didn't like it. So the total opposite of Ryan.

Watching Fabian really take care of Ryan was just so swoony. Teaching him that sex can be fun. That it is ok to laugh. That it is about only the two of them together and no one else.

There are definitely some laughs- Fabian's friends are hilarious. And I really loved Ryan finally connecting with a team member and becoming friends with him. This guy needed all the love he could get.

We get a well placed cameo of Ilya (book 2) as well as Ilya and Shane.

After reading these two books, I cannot wait to go back and read book 1. Because even though they are very loosely interconnected, all are stand alones

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